The “you didn’t build that” movement/message was taken poorly. I remember being pretty annoyed about it, but because I failed to see the true message behind it: you didn’t get to where you are on your own! To act as if you did is narcisistic and delusional to everything that happens in the world every day. A lot of our success is based on at least two of the three factors of hard work, talent, and luck.

The Success Triangle

The success triangle

We stand on the shoulders of giants. YouTube stars would not be as successful without the progress made in the tech industry, the platform to share their videos on, the rapid price reduction and accessibilty of video cameras, and the personal computer revolution. Thought incredibly behind compared to the globe, don’t forget about the evolution of broadband speeds from dialup to where we are now. Not to mention all fo the code libraries and eveything under the hood that makes everything run. It’s an incredibly complex world that we take for granted everyday. Someone built it. You can build the next version.

xkcd modern infastructure

Veritasium summarizes this really well in this video below. Four main takeaways I took from this video:

  • We overestimate our contributions and underestimate others’.
  • We need to act as if there is no luck. Another way to think about this is “no one is coming”.
  • We also need to look back on our success and acknowledge where luck had roles to play. Yes, sometimes luck looks like hard work but some people just get lucky.
  • Be someone else’s luck.

Some luck that has been in my life and career:

  • Getting into next-generation sequencing because I had a really cool boss that believed in me.
  • Working at a place that felt more like a sandbox/playground than actual work, so that I could develop skills around linux and bioinformatics.
  • Buying my house before this crazy housing market in 2021
  • Having an incredible, supprtive spouse that allows me to be myself despite my struggles.

I’d like to have a conversation about luck. Message me on Twitter and let me know how luck has played a role in your life/success.